Just last week, Intamin announced what they’re marketing as the world’s first
vertical launch coaster. But is that really true? Because if you visit Lagoon in Utah, you’ll find
Wicked. This Zierer creation opened back in 2007 and it features a series of LSMs boosting you up
a 90 degree top hat. That sounds like a launch to me. But how does Wicked stack up to the newer
launch coasters? Find out in this review. Lagoon’s most recent coasters such as Bombora
and Cannibal have both been designed and manufactured in-house. It’s an unprecedented
move for an amusement park in today’s world. And Wicked was the ride that paved the way
for this. This one was designed in-house. In the mid-2000s, Lagoon’s Vice President of
Engineering was Dal Freeman, who was previously Arrow’s Director of Engineering from 1986 through
the 1990s. Freeman was involved in the design of rides such as Cedar Point’s Magnum XL-200,
Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Drachen Fire, and Disneyland’s Splash Mountain.
Being from Arrow, Freeman was no stranger to innovation. So he designed Wicked,
a unique coaster with a vertical launch. Lagoon originally wanted to manufacture the ride
themselves by subcontracting out the fabrication. But instead they partnered with Zierer to erect
the coaster. Lagoon wanted Zierer to outsource the track fabrication to Intermountain Lift,
but Zierer chose to use Stakotra instead. Wicked was assembled on a section of Lagoon’s
parking lot and it was originally intended to be ready for opening day 2007. However,
after the ride was assembled in the spring, non-destructive testing determined nearly 90% of
Wicked’s support columns had defective weldments. As a result, the ride had a 2 month delay while
Lagoon worked with Intermountain Lift to fix the ride by disassembling and reassembling it.
This experience is why Lagoon now handles the fabrication of their coasters- as well
as the design- to have more control over the suppliers and quality.
Wicked has quite the presence from the parking lot. It’s one of the park’s most visible coasters
and is a large component of this park’s skyline. The vertical tower looks quite intimidating. The
green track looks nice. Then my eyes are always drawn to the yellow supports of the
main tower and the multi-colored trains. But from within the park, Wicked doesn’t
make the same impact. The ride is tucked in a corner and very little of it can be seen from
the midway since it’s blocked almost entirely by Colossus. But eventually you should see this
ride’s awesome sign and you’ll most likely see a line spilling onto the midway. But have no fear!
If you’re familiar with Lagoon, you should know that the amount of physical queue space
for their attractions is laughably small. It can only hold 15-20 minutes worth of people.
At the end of the line, you have a bank of lockers and 3 lanes. In the name of fast operations,
Lagoon doesn’t allow bags or loose articles to be stored on the platform. So, they offer
complimentary lockers while you ride. Then you have 3 lanes to pick from.
The rightmost lane is the standard stand-by line for anyone taller than 50”.
At the end of this line, you can choose whether you’d like to ride in the front or back row.
The two lanes on the left are special. One is a single rider line. I wish you could
access this without waiting through the rest of the line. It would make it more
appealing. Because once you reach the split point, you only have another 5 or so minutes,
and most groups would rather stick together. And some singles would rather pick their row.
The final lane is for guests between 46-50” in height. These guests are permitted to ride Wicked,
but they need to sit in a special booster seat. Adding and removing these seats does slow down
dispatches a bit, but it’s a really neat feature that allows kids to ride this coaster a year
earlier than they otherwise would. The only other coaster I’ve seen with this feature
is Impulse at Knoebels, which is the only other Zierer tower coaster in existence.
As long as there isn’t a booster seat involved, Wicked’s dispatches are very
fast. Riders are restrained by just a lap bar, so the crew can check these in a flash. This
is a good thing because the trains are super short, having just 2 rows of 4.
I think the forces are similar in the front and back rows, but I have a slight preference for
the front. You get the unobstructed view and I think it rides a little smoother.
As a whole this ride tracks very smoothly. There are a few spots with a light rattle that can
cause some discomfort due to the restraints. Wicked has these long and flat lap bars that
fold down. This component doesn’t bother me. In fact, I like how free it leaves your upper body.
I do hold onto the restraint once checked since it otherwise can tighten on the valleys. This is so
uncomfortable for some that the lap bars actually release a notch while you’re parked on the final
brake run. Skyrush at Hersheypark is the only other coaster I’ve seen do something like that.
The part of the restraint I do not like are the shin guards.
These bars seem to rest much closer to your shins than on other coasters like those from RMC. This
means any slight jostle can cause your shin to bash into it, which isn’t a pleasant sensation.
Once dispatched, you head into a dark room and round a corner. You hear a booming siren echo.
This part and the station are supposed to give an industrial vibe, but outside of that, Wicked isn’t
really themed. You then enter a corrugated metal tube, which holds the first of two LSM launches.
The first is flat. You are suddenly yanked forwards. It’s not the most powerful launch,
but it does have a little kick to it. You get a quick blast of positives while you curve
upwards onto the vertical incline. At this moment, two things happen. One, you head back outside.
Two, the vertical LSMs engage and propel you up the top hat.
This transition is seamless and you feel some strong positive Gs here.
You really can feel the LSMs fighting against gravity as they push your train towards the sky.
Now back to my original question, is Intamin’s new ride the first with a vertical launch? In my eyes,
no. I think Wicked’s vertical ascent is a launch, and one of the best one to be honest for its
uniqueness and forces. Intamin’s argument is that Wicked’s launch maintains your speed rather than
increasing it. While this may be true, you have to remember that you need to overcome gravity so you
still feel the acceleration even if your net speed is constant. But I’ll say this, if Intamin’s ride
increases your speed while going vertical, that is going to be one powerful launch!
Back to Wicked, the 110 foot or 34 meter tall top hat offers two distinct sections of airtime.
When you crest the top, you get a great pop of ejector airtime.
It’s a delightful contrast from those Gs plastering you to your seatback on the ascent.
After you momentarily return to your seat, the vertical descent throws you out of your seat.
This is some nice ejector airtime. It’s feels sort of similar to the airtime on the
beyond-vertical drops on Gerstlauer Eurofighters. I believe you hit your max speed of 55 mph or 89
kph at the bottom of the drop, but you don’t hold it for very long. You immediately head over
a speed hill lined with trim brakes. And you’ll definitely feel those trims slow the train down.
Despite the deceleration, you still get a decent pop of floater airtime.
Had those trims not been there, this probably would’ve given airtime like an RMC speed hill.
You then head through an overbank. It’s big and smooth, but it doesn’t really do too much.
Next is Wicked’s one and only inversion- a zero-G roll. But it’s an exceptional one. The
train really slows down at the top, resulting in a few seconds of very sustained hangtime,
especially since you have nothing restraining your upper-body. It’s one of the best zero-G
rolls in the world for hangtime. Wicked then twists above the station,
where you hit the mid-course brake run. The train will be slowed way down. You then commence the
second half of Wicked, which gets a lot of hate. While the first half has good speed and some
really nice elements, the second half is slow and honestly kind of awkward.
The drop off the brake run has some pep at least. It’s a straight one and you get
a little bit of floater airtime. Next are two very steep overbanks
and crawl over the apices. So you get some weird lateral hangtime.
It really feels like the train will valley here. You then have a gentle S-bend section that reminds
me of the one on Kennywood’s Sky Rocket and that’s a comparison no ride wants to strive for.
You then have a meek and forgettable turn. Then for your final element, you have a dip
downwards into a tunnel. This would be cooler if it was steeper, but it’s super shallow and tame.
You then rise into the brake run- getting no airtime- and come to a stop. You then
roll back into the station, ending the 2051 foot or 625 meter long coaster.
So what would I rate Wicked? I would give this coaster a 7 out of 10.
The musical Wicked is a tale of two witches- one good, one bad. The ride Wicked is a tale of two
halves- one good, one bad. I love this ride’s first half. That vertical launch is a standout
moment of any coaster. It really is incredible accelerating in that orientation. Then you also
have a fantastic top hat and a wonderful zero-G roll. I just wish the second half could maintain
the pace. Instead, it crawls and it’s pretty dull. It’s a shame Wicked ends on a whimper.
It's a bummer more tower coasters haven’t been added because both Wicked and Impulse
have some really nice moments. Hopefully a few more parks give Zierer a chance on the model.
So those are my thoughts on Wicked at Lagoon. What are your thoughts on the first vertical
launch coaster? Do you like the ride? Or do you have an issue with the layout and/or
restraints? Let me know down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it
if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a lot more roller
coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!